Old Meg (Gibson, set by H. Howells) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


There's never the taste of a cherry for me, 
They're out of my reach on the bough, 
And it's hard to be seeing them hang on the tree 
And no man to hand me them now.

It's hard to be travelling since Billy Boy died, 
With the devil's own crick in my back, 
With the gout in my knees and a stitch in my side 
And no man to carry my pack.

It's hard to be travelling the roads all alone, 
When cherries hang handy and ripe 
And no man to find me a soft mossy stone, 
And no man to kindle my pipe.

Authorship

Wilfrid Wilson Gibson (1878-1962)

Whin

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Herbert Norman Howells (1892-1983)

Date added to the website: 2009-01-30.

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